Bias By Street Address

March 21, 1986

The U.S. Justice Department has added three more Chicago suburbs to the list of municipalities it has sued for alleged hiring discrimination. Rather than make up excuses for rules that discriminate unnecessarily, municipal governments should take steps to change them.

It is not illegal for suburban towns to set reasonable residency requirements for public jobs, but not requirements that bar minorities from employment. When Cicero officials offered as an excuse for its residency requirements the fact that dozens of other suburbs have such rules, government prosecutors took appropriate action. Rather than give Cicero a pass, they proceeded to file suit against the other suburbs. Its recent suits against Oak Lawn, Worth and Franklin Park bring the total numer of sued municipalities to 12, perhaps with more to come.

More suburbs should follow the lead of Dolton, which reached an out-of-court settlement by changing its hiring practices. It abolished its one- year residency rule and dropped its requirement that job applicants supply references from three Dolton residents.